Editors: Paul, a CU-Boulder student, is available to talk about his experience with the university聮s restorative justice program, on the condition that his last name be omitted.
The evening started out with a few friends hanging out in a residence hall room. Later that night, however, after a disagreement with some other students left a couple of windows broken, one of the friends ended up in jail.
Paul, 20, a sophomore majoring in civil engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder, was the student who ended up in jail, after fleeing from police officers who had been called to the scene. One of the officers, who Paul would later meet under different circumstances, injured his knee during the chase. It was an unfortunate episode for Paul too, and one not in his character, he said.
"When I found out that he hurt his knee trying to catch me, I felt terrible," Paul said in a recent interview. "I聮m really glad that I got to talk with him and apologize. I was very disappointed in myself."
Paul was able to meet with the police officer and others involved in the episode, because he agreed to enter CU-Boulder聮s Restorative Justice program. By doing so, he avoided the university聮s judicial system, through which he could have received disciplinary probation, or even suspension or expulsion from the university, a chance he did not want to take.
"I聮m glad that I went through the program, and I think it really helped me," he said. "It really made me think about how my actions affect others."
Part of the Restorative Justice process for Paul聮s case was having a group conference set up by a facilitator. Patrick Kneeland, a junior at CU-Boulder majoring in molecular, cellular and developmental biology, and English, was the facilitator on Paul聮s case. As facilitator, Kneeland was responsible for pulling together the group conference and telling everybody involved what Restorative Justice is all about.
"I have to make sure they all know what聮s going on in the conference," Kneeland said. "For example, I let the people who are harmed by the offender聮s actions know that they won聮t be harmed again, and I also let the offender know that we aren聮t there to gang up on them. This is an important step."
He also has to make sure the conference runs smoothly, which means asking questions and finding out how everybody is feeling.
"I have no say in the outcome of the conference," Kneeland said. "In Paul聮s case, my goal was to show him that his actions affected everyone in the group."
Everybody in the group has a turn to talk about their feelings and get them out in the open.
"The whole idea is starting the healing process," Kneeland said.
To become a facilitator, Kneeland had to go through three days of training. At the session, he learned how to run a conference and about being sensitive to those who have been harmed, which is vital to the process.
Paul聮s group conference was made up of his father, who was brought in to support Paul, the injured police officer, a CU-Boulder judicial affairs officer, the resident adviser from Paul聮s residence hall, and a facilitator from the Restorative Justice program.
After talking for about an hour and a half, the group decided that the most beneficial way for Paul to learn from his action and to help repair the harm done would be to spend some time talking face-to-face with the injured police officer, and to get some counseling, both of which he has done.
"While I don聮t think this program would work for everybody, it was a good fit for my situation because there was somebody directly affected by my actions," Paul said. "And after everything that happened, the people who I had hurt were still willing to help me."